Forced
by I love storytellers
Summary: "Rukia has been forced into an arranged marriage by her elders. Ichigo has been kidnapped. Each are worried about the other as feelings for one another continue to grow."
1. A Little Note & Some Hope

Forced

CHAPTER 1- A Little Note & Some Hope

By- HichixIchi27

Disclaimer- I own this plot. But I do not take ownership of its characters. I do not profit from this story.

A/N- Well here is the first chapter after I did some revisions with my new knowledge of writing. Hope it better than the last one, same basic plot applies. Reviews aren't necessary but they are certainly appreciated and welcomed, oh and you flamers who wanna flame me about not writing for the past year, go for it ;) I totally deserve it, and I'm sorry.

Enjoy.

"Are you insane Ichigo?" Rukia said knowingly leaning against Ichigo's closet door frame as she took a wonderfully refreshing sip from her ice cold juice pouch after a hard day of training. Although it had been more like a duck and cover suicide mission in the underground training area. Kisuke had personally agreed to help with this session for some unknown reason. It had been hell; Rukia wasn't allowed to use her shikai and Ichigo his bankai. And to top it all off it was like a million frickin' blazing hot degrees outside. She glanced down at her juice box, little beads of water were beginning to roll off of its smooth plastic surface.

"Hell no, it's your fault for almost getting your head cut off!" Ichigo replied harshly. Ichigo remembered back to the training area, no bankai meant no super speed. Rukia and he had been separated by Kisuke's attack, and a bloody fast one at that. It really wasn't fair that Kisuke could use shikai and they couldn't. But the point of the exercise was so they would get better at strategy, if you had one well aimed blow and a plan you could go far. Simple right? Oh, no. not when Rukia was your partner. She was supposed to follow his lead and jump the way he jumped when he jumped. But instead midget decides to jump the opposite direction of him. They were separated now, and Kisuke took full advantage of the opening. He had bolted for Rukia sword poised to kill. Without his bankai he'd never make it in time.

Ichigo shut his eyes tightly not wanting to continue his thoughts. They marched along without him, reminding him sharply that had that not been a training exercise Rukia could very well have had her head lobbed off. His gut twisted and lurched at the thought. He would never be able to survive without Rukia in his life. They were just too close now to be separated, by anything. He turned away from his smaller counterpart and lay down on his bed trying to ignore her battering taunts and explanations as to why she was right to dodge in the other direction. He cleared his head and struggled to let his thoughts wander, slowly but surely they did. He thought about the past three months, the vizards, the big showdown, Aizen, his Dads shinigami abilities. It made Ichigo curious as to what else his father might be hiding. He wouldn't push it though, when the time came Isshin would share.

"Hello, are you even listening . . . Ichigo!" Ichigo's head snapped up in the direction of the raven haired death god who had called out to him.

"What do you want midget?" Clearly he was busy trying to ignore her.

"Never mind, just go to sleep we have school tomorrow." Rukia said angrily through gritted teeth, her hands bald into fist at her sides, and she could swear that her left eye was twitching! He had to go and ignore her in the middle of an explanation! Seriously, he was the one who started it. She spun around, her light blue dress flaring out ever so slightly, and climbed into her closet. _What a stubborn ass, can't even pay attention long enough to finish his argument._ Rukia grabbed hold of handle to the closet and slammed it shut. Her hand still gripped the door tightly. She looked down at herself, and sighed, her anger slowly ebbed away and left embarrassment in its wake. What was she doing? Her grip loosened and her hand fell lifelessly to her side. An argument is one thing but slamming doors like a three year old in the middle of a tantrum? She was being childish, and it wasn't just because she was being ignored. If she was being honest with herself, Ichigo was right. _She_ was being the stubborn ass; if it hadn't been training she could have died. Rukia wouldn't admit it aloud though, she had way too much pride. Though, leaving things like this would only drive them apart, a sick feeling settled deep down inside of her stomach. Maybe she would offer a compromise as to who should lead next time, and maybe just maybe sneak a sort-of apology in while they were talking. Rukia let out an audible breath and nodded in approval of her plan.

The dark haired reaper began shuffling through her clothes on the shelf above her bed looking for her p-j's._ I really need new clothes_. She thought as her fingers grazed over a pair of shorts that looked pretty worn. She eventually found he night wear, matching fleece top and bottom, both chappy. She changed quickly, taking her dress and folding it before putting it in the dirty pile. Rukia feeling a bit cold then tucked herself snuggly into the covers. Though she was feeling a bit better now she couldn't help but wonder what Ichigo was thinking right then, he'd probably get over it pretty soon though. She hoped. Oh! An idea struck her, maybe tomorrow if there were no hollows she could talk him into taking her to the mall to get some new clothes!_ I can sort-of apologize then!_ It was perfect. Rukia smiled whole heartedly and wiggled down into her comforter. A shiver ran up her spine. _I wonder why it so hot during the day and then once the sun sets it's like the arctic. _Or maybe her gigai was just acting up? She shrugged; a little cold never hurt anyone. So ready for some sleep Rukia shut her eyes and waited for blissful unconsciousness to whisk her away. But there was this awful buzzing sound, Rukia couldn't quite place it to anything either. It came and went in waves it was like some sort of quiet alarm made to get someone's attention. Her soul phone! Rukia was immediately pulled out of her half aware state and jumped up on the bed. Now she needed to look for the damn thing! It could be a hollow, or several, the alarm had been going off for at least five minutes. God she was so thick headed sometimes!

"Come on phone where are you?" Her hands began rifling through her clothes wondering where she had last put the damn thing! Her dress was the only other place she could think of, she grabbed it and started fingering through the pockets. "Yes!" She shouted almost too loud, it was night after all, good thing her roommate was a heavy sleeper. She pulled it out of the pouch and flipped it on, but what she saw confused her at first. It wasn't the regular hollow GPS tracker screen.

THREE NEW VOICE MAILS AND SIX NEW TEXT MESSAGES. Shone in bright red were on the flashing screen. It buzzed again, and Rukia almost threw the damn thing out of surprise. The text number had gone up to seven. _Jesus what could be so important?_ She hit view on the new message. It was from Byakuya. Oh shit, she was in trouble.

It read: RUKIA IF YOU DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE WITHIN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES I WILL PERSONALLY COME TO THE WORLD OF THE LIVING AND DRAG YOUR SORRY ASS BACK HERE!

Her jaw unhinged after reading the words, she nearly had to pick it up off the floor. The small raven reaper had never known her brother could be so threatening and aggressive through a text. Byakuya was never even aggressive either, well not towards her. Apparently this was very, very important. Worried that her time might be running out, she quickly hit reply.

"I'm sorry Nii-sama, I am on my way." She said the words aloud as she typed them. "And send." She punctuated her sentence with the 'click' of the send button.

She needed to get her ass in gear before her brother hauled her back by her hair. What did she need to take? Well first off, she had to change out of her gigai. Rummaging around in her little dormitory she found her soul candy, popped one, and was out in no time. Turns out it really was just cold out tonight, though she was glad her gigai functioned properly. _Ok, I'm out, now what do I need to take?_ The death god thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that she really didn't need to take anything. After all it wasn't like she was leaving permanently. She scoffed at the thought of even considering leaving forever. It was inconceivable at the very least. She and Ichigo were a team and nothing would get in the way of that. Not even her stupid half ass apologies when she did something wrong. It made her warm and happy all over knowing that no matter what Ichigo would always forgive her.

She turned and slid the closet door open a slow as she possibly could not wanting to disturb anything in the night. Which was stupid since Ichigo could sleep though a fire alarm. Throwing all caution to the wind she decided to fling the door open and jump out on to the floor. She looked over to Ichigo's sleeping form, he didn't even stir. Next stop window, and then she'd be on her way.

Rukia nearly stabbed herself with a pen climbing over his desk. After regaining balance she crouched down and unlocked the window with an audible click. She opened the window and began to shuffle out when she remembered to leave a note. Wouldn't want Ichigo to come crashing into her house while they were having a family meeting, now would she? Getting out of the window frame she grabbed some sticky notes and the treacherous pen from his desk. Sticking the final product on his window she was off to the soul society.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! Ichigo awoke to the unpleasant sound of his alarm clock. He could swear it took away a little chunk of his life force every time the damned thing would go off. He turned around in his blankets getting himself tangled in them. Eventually he put his face down in the pillow trying to drowned out the annoying racket. Finally, after a long battle of deciding to hit snooze or not, he lifted a heavy arm and slammed it down on the infernal noisy contraption. Taking in a deep breath the strawberry found pleasure in the way it stretched his diaphragm. His arms went out above his head and his back arced like a cat. God he hated mornings. He threw his legs over the side of the bed bringing his blankets with them. The chill morning air hit his chest telling him to get up. Ichigo decided on one more cat stretch before kicking himself completely free of the blankest and stood up. He was groggy still but more awake than he was, he put a palm to his eye and rubbed it awake. He really, really hated mornings. He walked over to the closet to get Rukia up. He used two knuckles and knocked gently on the door, he waited to see if the beast would be roused from its slumber. . . nothing. Ichigo loved this part. _Time to kick it up a notch._ He thought with glee. Two knuckles became the side of his entire fist; Ichigo started out slow and soft but then started hitting the door like a serial killer trying to get to his victim. It always scared the shit outta Rukia. He waited . . . Nothing still, could she already be up? Ichigo slid the door open finding a messy bed with no midget to be seen. Where the hell could she be? They had school in an hour, unless she was already down stairs eating.

"Rukia?" Ichigo called loud enough for the death god in question to hear even if she was down stairs, and still no reply.

He then resulted to frantically searching his house, first was his room, maybe she was hiding, under the bed? Nope. Then the bathroom, maybe she had to shower and couldn't hear his calling her. Nope. The Kitchen? No. Although Yuzu was making breakfast. He had asked if she had seen her, another no. Now he was back in his room, in a kind of panic as to where she could have gone. He looked at his clock above the window, only a half hour left till he had to leave. But then something yellow caught his eye as he looked away, Ichigo did a double take back to his window. Why was there a sticky note on it? He didn't know. Running a hand through his bed head he hurried to the window hoping that Rukia had left it saying where she was and why. He snatched the note off the window reading the familiar chicken scratch.

_Ichigo, my brother has called me back to the soul society. Not sure what for quite yet, but I'll let you know a soon as I get back. See you soon_

_R-_

A wave of relief washed over Ichigo, it gave him a bit of security knowing where she was, but the why part almost made him a bit uneasy. Byakuya personally calling Rukia back to the realm of spirits didn't make any sense; her brother hardly ever spoke to her. Unless. Ichigo faintly remembered that the midget had been called back once before, though it wasn't her brother personally it was her family. That had been for a possible arranged marriage, obviously she had turned down the offer or else she wouldn't have come back. And personally Ichigo thought that arranged anything was stupid. But still the possibility of losing her almost made him sick, the thought that _his_ midget could be taken away so easily just because it was her duty as nobility. Sickness was soon replaced with irritation.

_Why should she even need to leave? Really if she wanted to be married she obviously would have said something. _Ichigo's thought still peeved at the whole damn situation. His mind obviously had skipped the whole _arranged_ part of the deal. But then again she did manage to escape it last time; maybe her family was more lenient with this than he had originally thought. Or maybe she had just gotten lucky?Then again he could just be over reacting, maybe there was something else going on that needed her there, like . . . Ichigo's brain was struggling to come up with suitable possibilities that weren't marriage. Maybe they were redecorating? Ichigo shook his head in the negative. Well if they weren't redecorating, they had to be . . . painting her room a new color! Yes. Painting would work. Ichigo's subconscious told him he was a complete moron to even consider that, but that was all his sleepy brain could come up with, and that was enough to settle his temporary irritation. For now.

"Well whatever." Ichigo said to no one in particular. He was still here and he had to go to school. Sticking the note down on his desk he headed for the bathroom to take a shower.

The tile under his feet was cool compared to the air that was starting to fill with steam. Ichigo leaned over the sink and looked at his reflection, his hair was, and well it was a mess as usual. He let out sigh and picked up his tooth brush, and paste. After a good minute or two of teeth brushing he rinsed out his mouth with some _Listerine._ Running his tongue over his teeth he smiled at himself and turned toward his shower, Ichigo had always prided himself on his hygiene, and in all honesty he liked being clean. Placing his towel on a rack he stepped into the steaming water, it was hot enough that it almost burned his skin at first, almost. The shower was quick only about five minutes, Ichigo stepped out and immediately draped the towel over his head and began ruffling his hair. He wrapped the towel around his waist and shook out a little dampness left in his locks, he'd just let the rest of it air dry. Stepping out of the bathroom he noticed immediately that bits of steam were rolling off of his skin because of the temperature difference. He got a cocky grin on his face, oh yes, he was so hot.

"Ichigo you really should stop taking such warm showers, you're going to burn your skin off one of these days." Yuzu's gentle and concerned voice made its way to Ichigo's ears.

"And a good morning to you to." Ichigo said with just a pinch of sarcasm, he smiled letting his younger sibling know he was only kidding.

Yuzu smiled back at her big brother. "Morning Ichi-nii, and I came to let you know breakfast is ready."

"Thanks, I'll be down as soon as I'm dressed ok."

She gave her brother a painful look. "Does that mean I have to fend off dad from eating your food?"

Ichigo chuckled a bit at the thought of his little sister fending off his plate while there father tried to sneak a bite in. "Well, let's just say it would be much appreciated."

Ichigo turned to go inside his room, but stopped half way through and peered from behind the door. "What's wrong?" He asked when Yuzu hadn't moved from where she was.

"Ichi-nii, when will Rukia-Chan be back?" Yuzu looked up at him with big hopeful eyes that she'd be back soon.

Ichigo's playful demeanor vanished he didn't know when she would be back. "I don't know when, sorry." He answered somberly as he shut his door. He leaned back on the door letting his head hit harder than intended, but he didn't really care at the moment. The note did say she'd be home soon; he shook the possibilities of bad thought from his mind, after all . . . how long could painting a room take?

When he finished getting dressed into his school uniform he followed the smell of bacon to downstairs where Isshin, Yuzu and Karin were waiting for him. Ichigo took a seat next to Karin and stared at his food. Ichigo too his fork and poked at the scrambled eggs for a while before taking a bite. Ichigo looked across the table to Isshin suspiciously, he hadn't been attacked yet. Where was his real father!

Isshin looked back at Ichigo with a devious little grin on his face. _Oh, there he is._ Isshin greeted his eldest son with a good morning kick to the chest.

"So where'd you stash her son? My beautiful third daughter seems to be missing, and yes I know that technically she's not blood but damn it son!" Isshin raised a righteous fist to the sky. "That gives you no right to-" His words were cut off by Ichigo's fist.

"Rukia has some things to take care of." Ichigo spat at his dad while following up the punch with a head-butt knocking his dad out cold. Thank god, and may that old pervert stay down. He looked down at his breakfast that was now cold, and he had only gotten one bite in too! Ichigo excused himself from the table thoroughly pissed at his father; he grabbed his book bag from the counter. When he reached the door he slipped his shoes on and said his goodbyes. "Yuzu good breakfast… Bye Karin…Dad." The "Dad" at the end was pointless though, Isshin was still passed out on the floor.

Rukia walked briskly up the path to her home in the spirit world. "Welcome home Rukia," The servants greeted her at the door to the Kuchiki mansion. The cobbled paths way lead through the gardens and large main entry, it intertwined with itself throughout the mansion too, and also a few Zen gardens. She loved it here it was always so pristine, and personally her favorite part was the way it smelled. It was always so natural to her, various flowers and grasses putting off their own unique scent had mingled together into what she thought was the most beautiful perfume.

"I'm home!" Rukia breathe with excitement as she entered. She was still curious as to why her brother had called her home so suddenly. Maybe she should have read the other six messages, or at least listened to a voice mail or two. Oh well, Rukia brushed it off as nothing, although last time she was spontaneously called back it was a request for her hand in marriage. The Sudden Realization Panic was slowly beginning to set in. (Or S.R.P. as she commonly referred to this event.) She had barley gotten out of the last one too, only thanks to Byakuya had she managed to wiggle out of it. There had been a family meeting called and everything even though only six of the twelve elders showed up; it didn't really matter as long as Ren was there. God she hated that man, he was old wrinkly and meaner than a starving Lion. Usually once he's made a decision the family goes with it too, oh Rukia really, really hoped this wasn't an arranged marriage. If it was maybe her big brother could manage another miracle. Rukia began praying and chanting about good luck in her head.

"Rukia are you feeling ok?" Her personal bubbly silver haired maid Yuki approached her with caution. Apparently Rukia's skin tone had dropped several shades in her mini panic attack.

"Whaa?" Rukia was pulled out of her repetitive inner chanting.

"I asked if you were alright, are you?" Yuki came a bit closer with her arms extended, Rukia looked like she was about to scream or pass out. "You look a little pale." She continued a bit timidly.

And then fully fledged, wait for it . . . PANIC! (Or F.F.P.) "Yuki!" Rukia spun to her servant that was now scared out of her mind, and grabbed hold of her collar and began shaking her with ferocity. "I _NEED_ to get out of here!"

"W-whaa-whaay!" Yuki did her best to say "why" through all of the shaking. Rukia's shaking stopped but Yuki was still being held captive by the small Kuchiki's vice grip.

Rukia leaned in so close to Yuki's face that their noses were almost touching "Don't you see what they're doing?" Rukia breathed in a harsh barely audible whispered. Damn, and her eye was twitching again! "Don't you!"

Yuki's mouth was ajar and her eyes were huge! She had never seen her Rukia act like this, and they had been more like friends, than servant and master since Rukia was first adopted. "No." Yuki shook her head with the same expression on her face. "No I don't see."

"Then I am doomed! Doomed!" Rukia collapsed into her faithful servants shoulder. She could feel Yuki's hand calmly stroking her hair trying to bring her back to sanity.

Yuki took her master by the shoulders and held her out so she could get a better look at the damage dealt. Rukia's head was hanging as low as it could humanly go, signifying her depression. Not knowing how to approach this delicate situation, she let out a long exhale. _I might as well start by asking what's wrong. _Well better than nothing.

"Rukia?" She said cautiously, bending down so she could look up at Rukia's face. "Hey, tell me what's wrong." The silver haired maid took her hand and slowly lifted up Rukia's so she could look her into her eyes. It almost looked like she was going to cry.

"Oh Yuki." Rukia said doing her best to fight back the tears the threatened to spill. "I was called back for an arranged marriage." She could feel her face getting warm and puffy, but her iron will kept the tears from coming.

Yuki pulled Rukia into a hug; obviously her friend was hurt and needed comfort. So this was the terrible reason her friend had temporarily gone psychotic. "Are you absolutely sure?" She asked hoping that maybe there was a chance Rukia might be able to escape her fate as the Kuchiki heiress.

Rukia pulled back from the embrace and mushed her burning eyes with her palms hoping it would make the tears retreat. It was working, slowly her eyes became less puffy and her face cooled down a little. She straitened her posture trying to regain some dignity. "I'm about ninety-nine percent sure that it is."

"Only ninety-nine? Does that mean there's hope?" Yuki asked hoping that there was. It was almost funny, hoping for hope, almost.

"Not exactly. I haven't been to the meeting yet so the possibility of it not being an arranged marriage is about half a percent, and the other half would be my brother sticking his neck out for me again." Rukia closed her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. "And that's never going to happen." Her body was calming down now.

Yuki had a fragile soul, and if she was honest with herself she was having trouble holding back tears now, and really could not think of one comforting thing to say except. _Hope married life treats you well._ And there was no way in hell she would ever say that. Just as she was about to stammer out something she hoped might have some comforting properties to it a red and black butterfly began floating around her. It was one of the Kuchiki family's personal message butterflies. They worked the same as the squads did delivering there little butterfly messages to death gods. Only difference between theirs and the Kuchiki's was that the Kuchiki's were color coded for the servants according to how quickly a task should be done. Black meant no hurry, just another regular chore to do. Blue meant that it had to be done within two hours and red meant that if you didn't drop what you were doing and do it immediately and without fail that you would be left on the street to rot no matter how long or how good you had served the household. Yuki had never had a red butterfly before, but she knew the potential consequences if not done. She outstretched her hand with one finger extended so it could land. It landed and delivered its undeniable message.

_Bring Rukia Kuchiki to meeting room 106 for a family meeting. _

Oh no. She really didn't want to be the one to have to do this, but the butterfly was red, and Yuki was sure her master, no, her friend would understand. They watched as the red winged fly flew away back to its house ready to be sent out again.

"What did it want?" Rukia hoped that it wasn't what she thought it was.

Yuki looked down her silver bangs hid her eyes ashamed of what she was about to do. "Rukia, as a servant of the Kuchiki house hold I am instructed to escort you to meeting room 106." She reached out offering her friend a hand, silently sending her message that said _I'll be there for you._

Rukia took Yuki's hand and interlaced their fingers together showing that she understood that it was her duty as a servant. She was sad that this was the day her life was going to be sold to a man she didn't know, and frankly didn't want to know. As they reached the sliding doors of the meeting room, all Rukia wanted more than anything was for Ichigo to come bursting in like usual, and rescue her. _I guess I shouldn't have left that note. _

**A/N - **And there you have it, the new and hopefully better first chapter of Forced. At this time I would like to inform you that I no longer have a co-author to go over my work to edit, and help the story along. So I apologize for any grammatical errors that may occur, I always sucked at that part in English class. And now all I have is my word doc. To edit for me. lol


	2. Memories & Blackness

Forced

CHAPTER 2 – Memories & Blackness

By- HichixIchi27

Disclaimer- I own this plot. But I do not take ownership of its characters. I do not profit from this story.

**AN **– OK! It's up finally, yes! Thank you to all who have reviewed or faved or fallowed or all of those or a combo of many. Lol anyway this was supposed to be out within a week of re-uploading the first chap but I messed up my word document somehow on my computer, and it wouldn't let me do anything like I could bring up the doc but couldn't edit anything, that sucked. So I asked my mom if I could use her computer and she said yes and I wrote about half of this chap one day. But my mom's training to be a nurse and she had finals that week so I couldn't use it plus I also had to go to band camp the next week, which was fun. So I kind of wasn't able to write for a while and then when I could the computer go a virus and had to be cleaned. Anyways that's my big excuse for not having it up quicker (my computers still not fixed btw.) now go and read, and hopefully enjoy this next chappy!

She was so stupid sometimes; she pulled the covers over her head and balled up into herself. Worst day ever. She thought with misery as the knot in her throat grew larger; she was going to lose it. Rukia sniffed and not being able to hold back the burning liquid behind her eyes anymore quietly let the first tear fall, then another, and more still. They left warm one way tracks down her reddening cheeks. All in silence, she would allow herself to cry, but she would not sob. Her day was already bad enough and if she chose to voice her cries those who past her door might knock and ask if she was ok, or if she was hurt, someone might even come into her room out of concern for the Kuchiki heiress. Someone like Yuki, she loved Yuki no questions asked, but right now all Rukia wanted to do was finish her quiet crying in peace. Her mind slowly drifted back to the events of that day which had caused this sad state to appear from within her.

She remembered it all too well, when all she wanted to do was forget. The memory of her heart beating too fast to be healthy hit her and her tears seemed to stream even faster than before. The room hadn't smelled like the delicate perfume that the outer mansion had, but of staleness. It was as if the room hadn't been touched by the outside world in years, it had almost driven her crazy. Her mind had practically screamed for somebody to move, anybody anything. Was it her? Should she have made the move? She remembered trying, so many times, but she was frozen, stuck in the suspended animation of her own fear. What would have happen if she moved first? Would they have delivered her sentence that much quicker? Then there had been sound, a shuffling almost. At the time Rukia's eyes had been locked in heated battle with the tatami mat beneath her shoeless feet, so she hadn't caught the movement directly, but in her farthest reaches of her peripheral vision there had been a movement.

"Rukia, you did know that this was a formal meeting." She remembered how the ice cold statement had cut into her, and how smooth baritone voice continued ringing in her ears for far too long. It made all of the muscles in her body clench even tighter than they already had been, she didn't even dare look in his direction.

"Oh, hush." A very assertive and clear elderly woman's voice spoke with undying certainty.

Rukia smiled half-heartedly at the memory, and came out from under the heavy blanket wrapping it around her. Oh yes, Cho. She was the keeper of the butterfly house. He name fit he nicely in that matter too, after all Cho meant butterfly. She was the only elder that had ever liked her, she was a feisty old bat, didn't take anything from anyone. Quite frankly Cho was more like a bad ass Grandmother to her than anything. She was also the only elders that had truly accepted her as a family member. The only reason Byakuya had been able to adopt her was because the rest of the elder saw her as a piece to be bargain with, only to be forced into marriage and used as political gain, and with that feeling more angry now than sorry for herself her mind slipped into the past.

"Oh, hush." A very assertive and clear elderly woman's voice spoke with undying certainty. "Poor girl hardly had notice, Byakuya." Rukia heard Cho scoff and continue. "Let alone time to change into something pretty!"

Rukia heard Cho's strong and dignified speech and decided that if a seventy-six year old woman could have that much courage, maybe she could have some to. With a wavering will Rukia had somehow managed to move and take a look at all of her surroundings. First her eyes managed to find her brothers form, he was standing like a statue with perfect posture next to her, and he never even gave her a glance. But then again they never did. From there they had followed to a low lying table with elder family members surrounding the table situated comfortably. The first person her eyes made contact with was Cho, but when she looked up Cho was already intently staring at her.

Or they could have just looked up at the same time; Rukia wasn't quite sure on that part. Though she was absolutely sure about the small smile that graced the older woman's wrinkled face.

Rukia wiped the remaining tears from her face; she uncovered herself completely and rested her chin on her knees that were pulled close to her chest. That one smile had given her sudden hope, a hope that maybe she would somehow escape this hell. Though it had been false hope, her fate had fallen into place just the same, but now it made Rukia wonder. Why had she smiled? First thought was that maybe gramma Cho had thought she would be happy with her new life of marriage? Maybe Cho knew who she was marrying? They refused to tell Rukia, she tried hard to think back, Cho's smile had been awfully knowing. She pondered this for a while, but as it turned out the more Rukia thought the more questions arose, questions she frankly didn't want answers to. She let out an exasperated sigh, thinking about the whole damn thing made her tired.

Rukia lifted her head from her knees and let it fall against the wall behind her without much care of how loud a thump it made. Actually thinking back now, this had been different from the last time, very different. First thing that she defiantly should have picked up on but hadn't; all twelve elders were there, last time there was only six. Secondly, they never gave her his name only his title.

"Prince. . ." It was disgusting; they were selling her to the highest bidder. What was the currency? Social standing, the only reason Byakuya had been able to get her out of the last arrangement was because they were holding out for someone better it seemed. She picked up her head from the wall and slammed it back down. She had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming, the unpleasant taste of copper filled her mouth. It wasn't an unfamiliar taste though, this was only the second time she had to purposely bite it, the first was when they had told her who she was betrothed to.

She had probably looked like a deer in headlights; somehow she had managed to lock eyes with him. That repulsive bastard Ren, she hated it when he talked, his voice was so harsh dominating and it carried horribly, you could never get what he spoke out of your brain. It would just rattle around pointlessly in your head till no end, slowly driving you mad. Rukia remembered the sudden fury that ran red hot through her veins when he had hissed out her fate through his disgusting rotting teeth. She had to literally bite back a big ol' "FUCK YOU!" Her rage quickly subsided though, and as the adrenalin that burned her fight fled with it all that was left was the emptiness of shock.

The snake wasn't done talking yet though. "I can see that you're asking yourself 'Why do I need even be wed?'" She wasn't. "Well, as you know Byakuya is the head of the family so he can provide us with our heir, but you see there seems to be a shortage of royal blood at the moment." She was still trapped in the shock, his words almost rang empty in her ears, almost. "They need an heir. Really you should be honored." She wasn't.

Rukia slammed her head against the wall this time. "Ow . . ." It actually hurt that time; not one of her brightest moves. She sighed for the umpteenth time today, she could be pretty thick when she wanted, this was all inevitable and she knew this from the beginning. The moment she had finished signing her name on the adoption papers she had accepted the full duty of a Kuchiki heiress, and if the occasion should occur, marriage for the benefit of the family was on that never ending list of duties. She hated how it was done though, how that horrid hissing man with the bad teeth had to take pleasure in chaining her so. Ren really wasn't a pretty sight at all, and his poor oral hygiene was just the beginning. His eyes were nothing but slits, his skin was wrinkled like a piece of tissue paper that had been crumpled then flattened back out. You could try to get the wrinkles out but they never would leave. It wasn't smooth white paper though; it was as if an ink pen had exploded onto it while trying to write something illegible. His skin was poor kept and filled with age spots. Ren's hair was thin, sparse and receding; it made his forehead look bigger than it actually was. The snake was more like a hissing skeleton, he looked malnourished all the time, but he was a Kuchiki so that was damn near impossible. Rukia just figured he was born freakily skinny and tall.

"Gross . . ." She mumbled quietly before falling softly onto her side landing in her plush bed. She missed Ichigo, Ichigo had nice hair, and teeth, and pecs. Rukia shot up strait in her bed her legs that had been folded were now strait out in front of her. Where the hell did that come from!? Yes, she would admit Ichigo had a nice body . . . but, oh come on! Although, when he would walk into the room after his morning shower with nothing but a towel loosely hanging off of his hips she had noticed certain . . . aspects. She could feel heat rushing to her cheeks that was completely different than before. Oh my god! Bad Rukia, BAD! There was no way she was going there right now, and besides, Ichigo was her friend. Her hot friend. Rukia consciously straitened her posture, because she was of course talking about how the steam literally rolled off of him after those ,pesky morning showers. OK, fine she'd fess up, she wasn't a coward, and it wasn't like she was ever going to see him again.

"Yes, I have stared." She said proudly. _At his ass_. She added sneakily in her mind. She giggled to herself and smiled, Ichigo was always a good distraction, weather it was playful banter between just them or just thinking about how he always rushes into something like an idiot sometimes. Well, all the time really. _Oh, the fool_. Slowly the happiness faded, and her smile fell just as slow. She brought her knees to her head again, and rested there. Reality was starting to come back to her; she would never see Ichigo again. She would never see him close line Keigo in the hall. She would never see his crazy father punch him in the gut during breakfast, or his crazy orange doo. She almost laughed at the thought of his obnoxious hair, almost. The familiar burn behind her eyes was building again. All of her friend in the world of the living began running through her mind, and then it landed on Orihime_. At least that stupid bitch Orihime will be happy. _She suddenly thought bitterly. _You'll get him all to yourself_. Rukia knew it was mean, but the bouncing boob head of Orihime got very annoying, very fast. In all honestly Rukia would not miss her; in fact this was the only good thing coming out of her ordeal. She repeatedly got tired of boob brain thinking there was something going on between her and Ichigo when there wasn't. There wasn't, and that was just that. The tears started flowing again, but she sure would miss him and his silly hair. Suddenly something struck accord in her head. Her whole world came to a screeching halt as her insides were crushed. She would never be able to apologize to him.

Ichigo was . . . distracted to say the least, his mind was else were, his body almost felt like an empty shell. His eyes, which had been darting back and forth between the window and the door of the class room, finally decided to stop halfway between resting dully on the greenish black chalkboard at the front of the room. His thoughts on the other hand continued to rush about through his head, chaotic as they were all of them were orbiting around a certain petite raven haired shinigami. His eyes were pulled back to the window, his rational side trying to fight him the entire way. Rukia was his friend, so he knew that there was no way she would miss part of school and then come back already having missed most of the morning, even if she was back. She always hated missing part of something and then returning half way. Ichigo let out a breath that could have been either a scoff or a laugh, maybe a bit of both. She did the same thing with movies too. He remembered the first time he had taken her to a movie theater; he had looked over to see her squirming about in her chair. He had asked her what was wrong and when she replied that she had to go the bathroom he told her were it was. But she didn't move from her spot. Finally when the movie had ended Rukia sprinted out of the theater, later he had found her waiting outside the bathroom for him. Before he could even ask, she had looked up at him with embarrassment and anger all mushed together across her face and quickly stated "I hate missing parts of things, ok!" and walked away flustered. At the time he had actually kind of thought it was cute to see her all riled up over nothing.

And besides, she could always still be in the soul society, but painting was taking an awful long time.

His fingers were intertwined behind his head, his elbows out to the side making something steady to rest his head on. He of course knew that Rukia wasn't called back to the spirit world by her brother to choose a new color for her room, and now that his brain wasn't crowded by the grogginess of just waking up . . . and panic. His first though of marriage now held the winning blue ribbon for what most likely happened. He actually had three ideas that held places right now, in first place, arranged marriage. In second but had made a good run for first was that maybe a relative of high standing had died, it was only in second because he knew that people in the soul society could live for a very long time. It was strange though, when a person there was asked how old they were they simply replied by what they looked like in the realm of mortals. A person that was 150 years old in the spirit world looked only about seventeen in his world, so they said they were seventeen years old. In third was his completely moronic thought of painting, it only had third place because honestly he couldn't think of a third legitimate reason she would be summoned like that so suddenly. So sticking to the three place system his little idea of painting still got to hold onto the red ribbon for the time being. The bell rang out in its high pitched squeal that did just about as much a number on him as did his alarm clock, always taking chunks of him away with the sound, made him want to punch something. _Maybe Keigo_? He thought grabbing his books before heading to his next class. Oh, the thought of punching Keigo wouldn't only fill the hole that the bell had left but maybe it would relieve some of his worries. He doubted it, but it didn't really matter he walked into the hall ready to give his friend the close line of a life time.

Ichigo was relieved when he finally found himself at the desk of his next class. His thoughts were becoming more and more hectic going at full throttle in and out of the realm of possibilities. He was also trying to ignoring Keigo who was rambling about some movie he had seen over the weekend, his forehead was now sporting a large bruise, and Ichigo could only imagine it getting worse. He succeeded in muting Keigo out, and everything else around him. His thoughts began to wander, they weren't released from the subject of Rukia yet, but at least he was doing something besides glancing around the room like a nervous idiot. He thought about the last argument they had. It never really mattered how many times they argued though, Rukia would always try to make some sort of half assed apology disguised as something it wasn't. He suspected that she thought he didn't know about them, but he had caught on pretty quick, he actually liked the way she would always play with a strand of her own hair while attempting to say sorry, it was rather quite adorable. Or the way that her cheeks always tinted pink ever so slightly while she tried to look at something, pretending to busy . . . She has such delicate little hands too . . . and lips to match . . .and-

"Hello, are you even listening. . . Kurosaki!"

"... Rukia!" Ichigo said with surprise, as he jolted upright in his seat, eyes wide. He heard the class giggle thinking he was kidding around.

"No!" His teacher Matsuri-sensei shouted, her dark brows were furrowed in a mix between being bored out of her mind and wanting to kill herself because no one had gotten the answer correct yet, and here comes Kurosaki dreaming the whole god damn class away. "The answer to number twenty-two," If he even knows where we are! She thought bitterly. "Is not Rukia!"

Ichigo swore he saw her nostrils flare and a vein pop out in her forehead.

"Now please." She drew the last word out like she was trying to verbally inflict pain upon him. "Kurosaki-san, try to refrain from daydreaming during class."

"Yes mam." He said and relaxed in his chair again. He was now a bit embarrassed, but not all that ungrateful for the interruption. His daydream as the teacher had put it was beginning to take a turn for the dirty side of dream land. He felt like an ass now, how could he do that? Yes he was a young male and Rukia was an attractive young female, but that was absolutely no excuse for thoughts like that. Though he would never say it aloud, and tried to deny it to himself, that wasn't the first time his thoughts had gone to the . . . dirty side about his friend. He gave himself a mental slap to help get his shit together; he still had to get through class, and the rest of the day.

Rice, rice, and more rice . . . Ichigo looked down at his poor excuse for a lunch. Damn as much as he wished Rukia would finish her business in the soul society and come back, he hoped she would come back with the skills to cook something besides rice. He frowned down at it; maybe he might skip lunch today. But then again he really couldn't complain Ichigo wasn't exactly a master in the kitchen either. It was strange though usually Yuzu would do all of the cooking including making his lunch, but for some unknown reason Rukia had taken up a sudden interest in cooking. Placing it down on the ground beside him he tipped his head up and looked at the clouds, he loved eating lunch on the roof with his friends it was always so relaxing and every now and then something unexpected would happen that would always send them off on crazy adventure or rescue mission. His eyes locked with a puffy ball of cotton in the sky he had to quickly stifle some laughter. One of the big fluffy clouds looked like one of Rukia's poor depictions of her favorite bunny, Chappy. She really was a hopeless case when it came to drawing. Ichigo remembered when he had first seen one of her terrible bunny pictures; it was when they had just met and he was pinned to the floor bound by her kido. She was explaining about what she was and hallows while all at the same time flipping through what almost looked like cue cards. He couldn't help but let out a scoff at the memory of her drawing on his face.

"Kurosaki-kun? What's so funny?"

The orange haired substitute soul reaper almost forgot about the world for a second, but he hadn't been counting on Orihime's ever lingering attentiveness when it came to him. He frankly hated when Inoue sat next to him. In fact he almost found her intolerable anywhere anymore, it was always Kurosaki-kun this Kurosaki-kun that, oh well I didn't see you there Kurosaki-kun, Kurosaki-kun could you save me from Aizen? And then afterword I'll stalk you even more Kurosaki-kun! If he had a one yen for every time he had heard Inoue call him that god forsaken name, he was absolutely sure he would be wealthiest person in all of Japan.

"Nothing Inoue-san." He said looking over to her all while trying to hold back a look of disgust. He hoped to god she would just leave him alone, he didn't necessarily hate Orihime it was just that he could only handle her in small, very small doses. She never use to be quite so much a stalker either, but ever since he saved her from Aizen her normal slightly clingy attitude had gone into full blown stalker chick mode. And right now he wasn't particularly in the mood for being creped upon.

"Oh sorry Kurosaki-kun"

Nooo! His mind screamed in terror as that title ripped away a chunk of his soul just as the alarm clock and bell do. He would be surprised if he would have any left by the end of the day.

Ichigo sat limply in his desk only half awake, his lids were threatening close permanently the next time he blinked, He had sat through a whole hour of listening to Inoue ramble about laughter it was a scared whisper in the back of his mind that would probably end up driving him to insanity and back before the end of his final class. Which he had approximately, his heavy brown eyes darted to the clock, ten minutes left of.

"Hey Ichigo get up!" Ishida Uryu watched his tall carrot top of a friend stir in his sleep. Maybe he should improvise? Gracefully sliding his brief case from his shoulder to his hand he then preceded to beat his friend with it till he woke up, and to Uryu's surprise it took less effort than previously anticipated.

It almost felt like something was hitting him on the back . . . no something was hitting him! Ichigo jumped from his chair as the shock of consciousness gripped him and he landed on the floor next to his desk. He looked up menacingly only to find his only Quincy friend looking down at him with a smug look of satisfaction. "What the fuck was that for!?" Ichigo growled.

Ishida being used to Ichigo's aggressive behavior merely turned away and straitened his glasses. "Class is out, and you were asleep, you didn't wake when I called you, so I hit you." He made it sound as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Ichigo continued scowling as he stood up and brushed himself off, he let out a breath of frustration. "Thanks."

And with that Ishida walked out of the room content with his work. Ichigo watched as Ishida left, and sighed, thankful that no one was around to see him have to get beaten out of his sleep. He turned around to grab his own brief case, but Ichigo's fingers never reached the grey leather handle. All he felt was metal piercing the skin of his neck and what felt like ice rushing through his veins, then blackness.

**AN**- Alrighty then, that was chapter two. Once again I'm sooo sorry about the delay, but ya know I guess life is just one big delay, also sorry for grammatical errors and what not. Lol like I said no co-author :P

Anyways what did you think about it, I was very hesitant in uploading because I didn't really feel like it flowed right but I didn't want to make you guys wait anymore; (don't hate me please). Also I would like to say that I put some of myself into this chapter, because honestly when loud noises or something so incredibly annoying or repetitive is done (ex. Alarm clock) I literally feel like it strips away at my soul. And I hate going to events and being pulled out half way or missing part then being made to go through the other part (ex. I have an early Dr. appointment on a school day, let's say it ends at 10ish. I will do everything in my power to not go to school.) I love school but can't stand it at the end of the day when you have to run around and get all the crap you missed and half the teachers are already gone, so I think it's just easier to get more of it the next day. reviews are appreciated bunches!


	3. Princes & Prisoners

Forced

CHAPTER 3 – Princes & prisoners

By- HichixIchi27

Disclaimer- I own this plot. But I do not take ownership of its characters. I do not profit from this story.

**AN **– yes! Its finally here, chapter three. :) I Know it's been a long time, sorry been super busy, but marching band, and the play will are over, so I will hopefully start being able to cranck out chapters quicker than one a month. Lol I would like to thank all of you who have reviewed so far (I love reading what you guys have to say), and who have fallowed or favorite. And I would also like do a special shout-out to **27kirune12 **who was especially concerned for ichi and his neck injury, hope this clears some stuff up. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it!

Brown . . . white . . . and green. Rukia's violet orbs stared at the food on the table in front of her. It was some type of sukiyaki that was new to the house menu. She reached over to grab her fork, and hesitantly held it over the dish in anticipation. Rukia stared for what seemed like forever; then she let out a breath and set the silver utensil down. Normally she would eat with traditional chop sticks instead of a western style fork, but she had become accustom to them by now. After all she had only used western style utensils at Ichigo's. And if she was honest with herself she wasn't exactly hungry at the moment, she hadn't been hungry for the last two days. She was tiered though, her eyes were heavy, and she felt almost a little frail. It was probably because she hadn't been eating very much these last couple of days . In hindsight though, she realized that if she didn't eat something substantial before it was time for her to be fitted for her kimono, they would become aware of her dilemma and force her to eat. Rukia didn't have any plans on being force fed any time soon, so with that in mind she grabbed her fork with a new resolve and started to eat the sukiyaki, which was actually quite tasty. It reminded her of back home, when Yuzu would ma-. Home? Rukia stopped chewing the small bite of pork in her mouth, as she pondered. _When did I start thinking of Ichigo's place as home?_ She then mentally slapped herself for wasting energy such a stupid question; of course she would eventually come to think of Ichigo's place like her own. He was the only person in the entire world, living or sprit, which had risked themselves to save her from execution. A person she had hardly known had come from a completely different realm of the universe to save her second life. And then afterward they had been almost inseparable. It would be stupid to think that after that she would call home anywhere else but where Ichigo is.

Rukia set her food down as she remembered back to the day he saved her. His hair was a complete mess, and his sword! It was like he was walking around with an oversized butcher knife on his back! If her memory served right, and it always did, she had to try to keep herself from laughing when she first saw him. A soft smile graced her lips; it was the first smile she had physically shown one off in two days. Rukia's smile quickly fell into a blank expression that could only hide her inner turmoil; she would be picking out her kimono tomorrow. This would be the kimono she would wear to her meeting with the prince.

Now Rukia wanted to throw up all of the food she had just eaten. The very thought of being chained to someone she barely knew for the rest of her, surely, very . . . very long life. It made her sick. She pushed away the food from her and stood up; maybe a walk would help clear her mind. She knew it wouldn't, though, Rukia knew she would walk and walk with nothing on her mind but the life she was leaving behind, and her closest friend. Stretching her arms out as she casually walked to her sliding door, she wondered how Ichigo was doing at that very moment. She sighed as her pale hand gently opened the paper door, _probably better than I'm doing._

Ichigo felt cold, his mind tittering on the very edge of consciousness, even in his foggy state of mind he could tell he was blind folded. He flexed his muscles trying to move only to find that his arms and legs were bound. He huffed, his back arched against what he assumed to be a chair, he continued to fight his restraints to no avail. The coldness in his limbs was slowly ebbing away, and his mind was clearing. The strawberry stopped fighting for a moment and decided to attempt observing his surroundings; first thing to check was his body. He had a slight pain in his neck, no doubt where he had been injected with some sort of drug. He was glad they hadn't cut his artery. He continued to feel his environment finding that he was indeed strapped to a chair, with some sort of unknown bonding material, rope maybe . . . wait. Ichigo shuffled around in the chair, his clothes were different. He was in his shihakusho! He was defiantly not in his body anymore; whoever he was dealing with knew about his powers. Ichigo could only assume that he wasn't in the world of the living. His heart started to beat just a bit quicker, he didn't feel Zangetsu. His already low head hung just a bit lower. The chances he was bound by ordinary rope vanished into dust; the odds were now in the favor of a kidou of some sort or another. It had to be a high level one too, or else he would have been able to break it. The more Ichigo thought about his situation the more he was able to gather about his opponent.

He scoffed, if Rukia were here she'd probably die of laughter. He could see her.

"_Ichigo actually thinking!" He thought in a poorly attempted voice of his smaller counterpart._

This time he let out a small muffled laugh. Rukia didn't catch some of the things he did, and him knowing when she was trying to apologize was just one of them. She may not have realized it but he really did think things through, or at least tried to. Sometimes he'd screw up and end up looking like the idiot she thought he was, and he'd even admit, it was usually pretty funny. He sighed, and wondered how she was doing right now. She could even be home right now, wondering where he is. He smiled at the improbable thought; after all he didn't know how long he had been out.

He had to have been sitting there for at least . . . Ichigo groaned, he didn't know how long, far, far too long though. His thoughts had roamed out and then came back over and over again. His attempts at trying to maneuver the blind fold off had resulted in failure. After the first hour or so, he realized that it wasn't an ordinary blindfold. It was black in color, or at least he thought it was, and instead of being just around his eyes this covered his entire face and the first half of his neck. He could tell it was tied in three places, one behind his head, one at the base of his skull, and the last marked the end of the cloth at the middle of his neck. All knots in which were too tight to wriggle out of. The strangest part about the fold wasn't its unique shape though; it was absorbing his spiritual pressure. Not enough to knock him unconscious, but enough to keep him weak, too weak in fact to even materialize his sword. He remembered thinking that the kidou was a high level, but now it could have been any type and he still wouldn't be able to break it. He leaned his head back and stretched, arching back like a nimble cat. Sitting in one spot for who knows how long can really get uncomfortable.

Suddenly a thought struck in his mind, was it night or day? The blind fold was a product of the soul society, so who knew what it could do. Maybe it absorbs light as well as reitsu. Ichigo inhaled deeply letting the air stretch his diaphragm, the slowly released it. There wasn't much to do besides breath in here. More useless ideas came to his mind, maybe the chair was moveable? Ichigo leaned to one side curiously, but to his disappointment, the chair seemed to be adhered to the floor. So the young orange-haired shinigami just, sat there.

And sat there. He could swear he was going to go mad, he even started to wonder why his hallow hadn't taken over yet. With his spiritual pressure so low it would seem like Hichigo would seize the moment or do something hallow like.

"Good morning, Ichigo."

His thoughts were interrupted by a strangely familiar voice, he hadn't even sensed them, was that-. Instantly his blindfold was ripped off of him, immediately he felt his reitsu coming back, he cringed at the blinding white light that hit his eyes. It was the first time he had seen light in a while. And that voice! He knew who it was. Ichigo attempted to open his eyes again, this time his eyes slowly adjusted.

"Dad?"

"Hey son, how's it going?" Isshin said casually and a bit sarcastically leaning against a large stone pillar that framed a huge door. He knew Ichigo had to have been sitting like this for hours.

Ichigo looked at his father wide eyed, and with his mouth hanging open. He was unable to gather his thoughts; he just stared at his father in confusion but was eventually able to spit out. "What the hell are you doing here?" his voice held a very apparent shock to it.

Isshin walked over to the strawberry and answered with a stupid grin on his face. "The real question is what you are doing here?" When Ichigo didn't respond Isshin continued, "I asked them to bring you to your room and make you comfortable, but apparently we need new servants. I've been looking for you for a while now." Isshin folded his arms, and in his hand was the reitsu eating fold. "This place is huge, but I can see why they did take the extra . . . er, precautions." He finished his sentence as he held up the fold and gave it a curious glance.

Isshin walked over to Ichigo and looked at the kidou binding his son; he closed his eye and concentrated. "Kaiho!"

Ichigo fell to the ground after the kidou was released, it turned out that even the chair was made of kidou. Ichigo immediately stood up, and looked at his father, the expression of "what the hell?" written all over his face.

"Don't look at me like that son. It's not my fault you were late to breakfast." Isshin got one of his typical mischievous grins.

Ichigo didn't even know what hit him, well he did, his father's fist. But that was beside the point. Ichigo was pissed off again! Unbelievable his father just comes out of nowhere after he's been tied up for forever, with a spirit sucking mask on, and punches him in the face for being late to breakfast just like it's any other day! Isshin had hell to pay.

After a few minutes, well more like fifteen minutes of good old fashion brawling between father and son. Isshin was down for the count and Ichigo had some questions that he needed answered.

"What the hell, Dad? Can't you be mature for just one moment and tell me what the hell is going on!?" Ichigo barked at his father who was now on the ground, laughing at him. Ichigo scowled at his dad and started to walk away angrily. Then he realized he had no clue where he was going and stopped at the door. Actually this was the first time he really looked at the place he was in, it was huge, the gold ceiling extended beyond what most might think, far too high for even the largest of castle. He looked to the floor; it was white marble with flecks of black in it, polished to perfection. His brown eyes scanned the room for anything of significance, there was, and what was there, was luxurious. Huge mural's hung along the walls and the furniture was breathtaking. The whole room was Victorian era in style. The walls were especially bold; they were colored a deep crimson with gold borders decorating the sides elegantly. Ichigo was a bit taken aback by this new intake of scenery, there was no other way to put it but the room was simply gorgeous. He turned to his father and asked, "Where are we?"

Isshin smiled and said, "I was just about to get to that part, Ichigo. Haven't you ever wondered what you are?" as he picked himself up off of the floor and dusted himself off.

Ichigo had to rip his eyes away from the room to look at his dad this time, he was going to answer, but his eyes caught another strange sight, his father who was normally dressed in western style clothes anyways, seemed to take it to an extreme. He was dressed like a gentleman. Ichigo wasn't sure if his eyes fell out of his head, he blinked, and nope they were still there. He wondered how he hadn't noticed when they were fighting. Isshin wasn't just suited up either; he was literally wearing the clothes to match the room. This was defiantly making wonder what he was now. Tentatively Ichigo answered "Yes I've . . . wondered." Ichigo decided to drop the clothes thing for now. The strange appearance of his father and the room piqued his interest.

Isshin looked at Ichigo he could tell he had finally noticed his attire, but the subject they were on now would be doing all of the explaining. "You aren't human, you aren't a soul reaper, and yet you're not a hollow either." Isshin walked over to his son bringing an almost demanding heir of respect. Ichigo tensed and swallowed hard knowing that whatever he said next could answer some of his most desired questions. Isshin stopped about a foot away and put his hand firmly on Ichigo's shoulder and stated, "Ichigo, you're a prince."

**AN- **wellps, there you have it chapter three of forced, I hope you liked it. And once again I am so sorry for the delay. This chapter was also a bit shorter than the others, but I felt like it would be a good place to end it :3 so many questions unanswered, and I think the last sentence has raised more, tee hee how do you think he'll react? Lemme know, review are appreciated :) thanks.


	4. Some Fun & Square Miles

Forced

CHAPTER 4 – Some Fun & Square Miles

By- HichixIchi27

Disclaimer- I own this plot. But I do not take ownership of its characters. I do not profit from this story.

**AN **– ok, here's chapter four, not much to say on this except, I hope yawl like it. And its 3:00 am on a Saturday and I'm sooo tiered. Enjoy! :)

Sakura blossoms drifted lightly like feathers floating throughout the air, It made Rukia wonder that if snow was pink if this would be what it would look like. One stray petal landed softly on her sock covered foot, she bent down to pick it up and held it gently between her thumb and fore-finger. The sun's bright rays hit the opaque pink, and it seemed as if just for a moment that the petal would be carried away by the light. Her kimono waved slightly in the fresh breeze, she took a deep breath, letting the scent of spring swirl in her nostrils.

She looked down at her feet. It was day three. The day she was going to be fitted for her kimono to meet the prince, but actually she didn't need _fitted _at all. The only thing that needed to be done was an adjust to the length of the kimono. They really only needed her for was so she could pick a color and design! This was ridiculous, Rukia wondered if she could just have Yuki pick out the damn garment for her. It stuck her as a not half bad idea until she thought about what the elders might do to her. Ugh. Such a nice spring day ruined by just the very thought of her elders. She tilted her head back and took in the scene of the rich blue sky. Only a few wandering clouds corrupted the constant shade of blue that was the spring sky. She her eyes closed. It was an ironic thought, after the last few times Ichigo and she had been on an adventure they screwed up the senkaimon so bad that the spirit world was now several seasons behind the world of the living. The department of research and development nearly shit themselves when they found out. She remembered having to keep herself form laughing like a deranged lunatic while caption kurostuchi chased Ichigo round the seireitei with his bankai. The world of the living was probably still sweltering hot, unless there happened to be a small break in the heat wave. A smile seemed to come out of nowhere, going on adventures with Ichigo was defiantly going to be missed the most.

A small chuckle escaped her lips; she couldn't decide what she would be missing more, adventures or those steaming hot morning showers he always takes. Oh, if she were alive right now she would probably be going to hell. But the moment she had come to terms with_ never_ going to see him again was the exact same moment she decided to let her thoughts be free when it came to Ichigo. This didn't mean that thinking about him was easier though. It had happened last night on her anti-walk. She would never, ever . . . ever see him again, and as sad as it may be, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. _Except pray for him to save me like he always does, and always should!_ Her true thoughts screamed in the back of her head. But luckily her true self was locked deep away in an unbreakable cage. _After all even if we do see each other again, it's not like he can read minds._ She thought sarcastically. With one last intake breath she relaxed her posture and her gaze became one with the ground once more. Her violet orbs locked in a battle with the stone beneath her sandaled feet.

Grey hard stone.

Soft longing purple eyes.

Purple eyes.

Grey stone.

Eyes.

Stone.

Purple.

Grey.

Ahhh! Her face contorted with irritation. Her once serene eyes were now narrow and burning, and a squished down brow completed this _ever_ so attractive look. This was pointless, when were they going to take her away to pick out a stupid color? If they were going to do it, why didn't they just do it already!?

"Rukia?" a familiar gentle voice seemed to wash away the edge of her irritation.

"Yuki?" The raven haired reaper breathed in slight relief. That was quick. Yuki always seemed to make her calmer though. But, the blue butterfly circling in a pattern around her head did not. Two hours, eh?

"I-it's time for you to be fitted." She said with a pinch of remorse due to the . . . um, delicate situation.

"All they need me to do is pick out a god damn color!" Rukia said suddenly in a burst of anger. For some reason unbeknownst to the young reaper, she snapped. Her feet started moving on a schedule of their own accord, storming in the opposite direction Yuki came in. Oh yeah, if they wanted her to pick a color, she would pick her damn color and then get the hell outta there! She grabbed Yuki by the sleeve and pulled her along for the ride.

"A-ah . . . Rukia." Yuki said before they could get very far down the cobbled path.

Rukia gripped the black sleeve tightly and sharply turned around. "What?" Her intense eyes, in misdirected rage, burned holes into the meek girl. Then she saw the look on Yuki's face, her friends face. She was scared. The pink haired girl's abnormally large silver eyes were widened with what to her looked like a mix between fear and concern. Yuki opened her mouth to say something, but before she could Rukia's head drooped like a dying flower, her dark hair hiding her pale face. "I'm sorry." Her hand fell like dead wait freeing itself from the sleeve of the Yuki's uniform. Rukia felt terrible, horrible, and sick, there were so many words to describe it. It was what felt like a black hole getting deeper and deeper inside her chest, slowly growing and eating at her. "I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry . . . I'm -"

"Stop it." Yuki said firmly. Rukia slowly looked up from in between the gaps in her hair. To Yuki's surprise there were tears silently streaming down from red puffy eyes. "I know how hard this must be for you, but when you freak out like that I feel . . . helpless."

Rukia straitened a bit and sniffed. "I'm sorry."

"Please stop saying that, you have nothing to be sorry for, and if you did I'd forgive you. Your probably handling this better than most people would." Yuki said with a gentle smile hoping it would make Rukia feel better.

"I'm barley handling it at all." Her large violet orbs dodged her friends gaze. _So much for "coming to terms with it all" _That thought kept reappearing in her mind.

Yuki knew that this was incredibly lame move and kind of cheesy, but any chance for Rukia to open up was welcomed. "We have two hours till you get fitted." She paused, "Do you remember when we were little and I would sneak into your room and we'd have sleepovers?"

Rukia nodded.

"We told each other everything, secrets, stories, and what happened during the day, do you want to have a sleep over tonight?" The pink servant asked hopeful.

Rukia didn't really think too much about her answer, Yuki had her at the word _sneak_. And to be honest she was dying to talk to someone about what she was feeling. Besides she hadn't had much girl time in the world of the living that hadn't been accompanied by the ever whiny and annoying Orihime. In fact right then Rukia decided that Orihime would defiantly be one of the first of many things she would complain about to Yuki. Rukia straitened her clothes, sniffed once more, and swept away the tears from her face with her delicate hands. "Yes." She smiled. "That sounds like fun."

For the next hour in a half Yuki and Rukia were headed to the pond to skip rocks and catch spirit frogs, and just for that bit of time Rukia was going to have as much fun as possible. And then she'd be off to Room 308, the dressing room.

Ichigo blinked, and then he blinked again, a breath in between, yes, now he was getting the hang of it. There was something missing though. Oh! Now he remembered, his father had just called him a prince! _What is this tom fuckery!? _Within a split second Ichigo was on the ground, howling with laughter. His stomach and rib cage was beginning to hurt from the intensity of it. "Oh, my god! That's fucking rich!" he managed to choked out in between laughs. Tears were now beginning to form on the corners of his eyes. He stood up still snickering, it was a laugh similar to when his hallow thought something was absolutely to die for hilarious. Uncontrollable and raw. He stumbled over to a pricy looking dresser and started pounding on it. His other hand covered his still tearing eyes. "And here I thou- aha hmm, Ahem . . ." he choked and sputtered on his words. "AHAHA! I just choked on my spit." And for some weird reason, this made it all the more funny to him. . . "Oh, ha, Ow." His ribs felt broken now. His breaths were heavy and beginning to slow down. "Owww." The strawberry groaned as the hysteria finally began to ebb away. "OK, ok, I'm back." He said as he wiped the tears from his eyes. His attempts to hold back his chuckles in between his words weren't convincing though. His gaze finally rested upon his fathers, who just so happened to be giving his son a death glare that now rivaled Rukia's. Ichigo froze for a second, and then quickly relaxed. "Oh, come on, that was hilarious. How'd you keep a straight face?" However there was no change in Isshin's firm stature.

"That's because it wasn't a joke."

Ichigo doubled over laughing again, but the second wave didn't last nearly as long as the first. "Oh man. Ha ha-ha. And here I was all prepared for some heartfelt conversation about, _who I am_." His words were dripping in sarcasm. His next laugh fell short when he noticed no change in his father's demeanor. There was only one word for what Ichigo felt after seeing his dad's face. Denial. His warm brown eyes widened just a bit, just as if he was daring his maker to say it again.

"I wasn't joking."

Ichigo stood up strait almost like he was on defense mode. "No seriously, I get it jokes over." Suddenly he remembered where he was. "We should probably try to um, escape so-"

"Ichigo!" Isshin's voice boomed throughout the vast room. "You are the price of the soul society!" His face turned solemn, and his voice quieted. "And this is your castle."

Ichigo could tell his father was being dead serious, a strange new quality for him. "I-I" he couldn't think of anything to say, it felt like suddenly all the hidden cameras would be revealed, and the fake walls would fall down, and then all of his friends would come up and hug him. Calling him names and saying, _"I can't believe you fell for that!" _but they weren't, and there was no hidden cameras or fake walls. It was all real. "Why?" Was all he could manage to say. He didn't know what he was asking why about exactly. It could have been many things.

1) Why am I a prince?

2) Why did you kidnap me?

3) If you answered, yes, to question one. Why did you wait to tell me?

4) Why now?

5) Why is my father wearing ridicules clothing?

There were so many more questions, so many unanswered mysteries. But that's all he could say. "Why?"

Isshin smiled seeing as his son had finally gotten the hint. He walked over to him and put a firm hand on his shoulder. "I'll tell you everything, just promise me you won't freak out like you did the time I told you the truth about what happened to your goldfish."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes, the memory of him destroying the house after he got the news was firmly engraved in his mind "I was five, and I loved that fish. Now start answering questions old man."

"Alright, let's go for a walk. There's a lot you don't know about yourself." The elder Kurosaki, pulled out his zanpakuto, that now looked like a thin and refined English sword, and opened the senkaimon. He stepped inside, waving a hand for Ichigo to fallow.

"Why are we in here?" Ichigo questioned now wary of their surroundings.

"Were in here so you don't destroy the castle. Now one question at a time, geez." He rubbed the back of his head like he was trying to remember something. But then eventually let his arm slump beside him in defeat. Isshin suddenly sat down cross legged. "Sit." He commanded. Ichigo obeyed. "Now let's start with why, shall we?" he smiled and rested his chin in his hands. "We cannot choose who we are born to Ichigo, you just so happened to be born to a king. There are masses of untapped potential in your blood still." He paused thinking about how to say this next blow. "I am not your biological father." The look of shock on Ichigo's face was almost enough to make a blind man see his next question, or a deaf man hear it.

Ichigo sprang from his seat like a bullet shot from a gun. "Calm down, you are Masaki's son don't worry about that." The immediate tension surrounding Ichigo calmed slightly, "What the fuck do you mean? Am I adopted?" His hands were now entangled in his orange hair about to rip it out. Ichigo couldn't bear the thought of his mom not being his mom.

Isshin sighed; this is why he wanted them out of the palace. "Would you sit down and let me finish!" Ichigo tentatively took his hands out of his hair but did not sit down. Isshin frowned, stubborn ass. "When you were born, you were to be only half soul reaper and half human, then in the frenzy of discovering your powers you were exposed to your inner hallow. But we'll get to that another time, having royal blood and a human's blood in the same vessel creates an extremely strong being. I'm not exact ally sure how it happens but it does. The process is made to where every tenth heir must be half mortal. But this blood boost will only stay in the family for ten generations, by then all the quality's the blood mix gives is bred out. It's because all the marriages from the first to the ninth are between the prince and an heiress of a noble family. There must be a new heir created with this specific blood. So once every ten generations in the royal family there is a child created with such qualities, aka you. Your mother, Masaki was chosen from all of the women in the world to specifically be your mother. Are you getting any of this or are you just ignoring me?

"I'm getting it, I was just wondering why I was kept in the world of the living for so long." Ichigo now calmed down from his tantrum sat down by his father again. "And what does that make you to me?"

"I thought you'd never ask" Isshin laughed briefly. "I am your guardian. I was assigned by the king to protect and nurture you while you lived in the realm of the living."

"Some job ya did there." Ichigo said under his breath, a scowl was settling nicely on his face.

"I heard that." Isshin's eyes darted at Ichigo. "Anyways, besides being your guardian, I am also in the royal court, so technically I'm royalty too. As to why you were kept in the world of the living for so long, it's because we knew Aizen was trying to bridge the gap between the palace and the soul society. The king wanted to keep you out of the mess. But that apparently didn't work now did it?" He gave Ichigo a fake ass smile.

Ichigo wanted to smack that grin off of Isshin's face. But suddenly a thought struck him. "What does this make mom to you? Did you love her?"

"Of course I loved her!" Isshin retorted almost a little appalled his kind of son would ask something like that. "Oh, son!" Isshin threw himself at Ichigo only to land on the purple dusty ground of the senkaimon. "Your mother would be turning in her grave if she heard you say that!"

Ichigo put his hands up in defense of himself, crazy dad mode was apparently back on, "But I thought she was married to the king?"

"Technically . . . yes. But in marriages like the one she had with the king it was mostly for show and to enhance the blood line. Your mother and I had been married for a few years before you were born so when she turned up pregnant, it wasn't like some big surprise, just a little miracle to her." Isshin's words travelled off as he got trapped remembering his wife, he really did, and still _does_ love her. "The other marriages though, are much more personal, and intimate, the heiress ends up living in the castle for the rest of her life along with the soon to be king." Isshin yawned; explaining sure was a lot of work. He liked it when Ichigo was oblivious better. He chuckled knowing that Ichigo discovering his powers was inevitable though.

"Wait does that mean Yuzu and Karen are princesses? Where are they?"

Isshin could tell that panic was beginning to grasp Ichigo again. "They're fine, they also know, took it much better than you did might I add. In fact Yuzu was quite happy to discover she was royalty. But to answer your question no they're not princesses, they are only your half-sisters, and I am their biological father." He paused for a moment to adjust his seated position. "They're half human too so, it's not like you're that different."

And suddenly, even with his supposed father figures reassuring words, Ichigo felt very alone. His dad wasn't really who he said he was, and his beloved sisters are only connected to him through their mother. He didn't even know where Rukia was right now. He swallowed, "Am I still allowed to see them?" They may only be half his blood, but he still loved those two to bits.

Isshin grinned like a Cheshire cat after hearing those words; he always knew Ichigo really loved his sisters. "Yes, actually you can see them after were done talking, since I'm your guardian, I live in your castle, and since they are my daughters they live in my section. But you probably won't even see us much, if you stay on your side, this castle stretches several square miles." Ichigo's jaw dropped, and his eyebrows rose. Isshin stood leaving behind a fairly surprised Ichigo. "I think that's about it information wise, want to go see your sisters"

"Yeah." Ichigo replied as he stood up, his father figure had already opened the senkaimon back up, and soon enough they were standing back in the giant room with the lavish furniture. There were a few questions he still wanted answered but, those could wait. One of them being how long he was unconscious for, the other was why his dad was dressed like that. Yes, he decided he would still call him dad, but wasn't sure until after he said he had loved mom. Ichigo would put up with being bound by kidou, and being drugged as long as it meant that some part of his crazy ass life had been functional. But there was still one big question that needed to be asked.

"Why did you decide to bring me here now?"

Isshin froze, clearly he had forgotten the most teensy of details. . . this was the reason he had put Ichigo in the senkaimon in the first place. "ah, well son . . . you see."

"Spit it out old man, I don't think much more could surprise me at this point." He was about to be surprised.

"You're getting married."

**AN- **Yay! A wedding! Lol I wanted to make it longer, but I'm really, really tiered and I said I would update today so shizam! Reviews are welcome! Tanks for reading. Oh, and if you have any questions, pm me or leave a questioning review lol either way I'll get back with ya. Tootles. XD


	5. Wanting & Bargaining

Forced

CHAPTER 5 – Wanting & Bargaining

By- HichixIchi27

Disclaimer- I own this plot. But I do not take ownership of its characters. I do not profit from this story.

A/N- ok. Wow its been like fo-eva! My deepest apologies go out to everyone. I have literally the worst luck with computers in the world. It crashes, it comes back fixed it some how breaks again. Welllllll anyhoo sorry for the delay, and yes I know about what's going on in the manga right now. And sorry but I'm not going to change a story I thought of a year ago to fit the manga. Lol maybe in another life time. You guys already know I have no beta, so if there's errors and what not I'm sorry, if I were better at grammar I would fix this stuff myself but unfortunately I'm terrible at it. Lots of Rukia in this one, so hope yall like Rukia. But that's enough go on read and enjoy . . . hopefully

Rukia wheezed out the last of her air as the last strangling string was tightened on her corset. Her hands were gripping as tightly as they could onto the dresser in front of her, it felt as if she were to press down much harder the wood would snap and splinter underneath her tiny fingers. She had to bite her tongue to keep from cursing at her ever fateful maid. "Ahh, Y-yuki. . .aah hoo . . . no air." Rukia managed to squeak out in-between gasps. "This is crushing . . . me." She had to seal her eyelids down because if she didn't her eyes might pop out of her head!

"OH! Sorry Rukia, it's just that Cho- sama said to get it as tight as possible." The petit pink haired servant girl quickly started undoing the crisscrossing strings.

Rukia gave a sharp inhale, one similar to when a person breaks the surface of water just before drowning. She slammed an open hand down on the dresser as her back arched. She then slowly looked over her shoulder at Yuki. "Don't worry, a-ah-" she cringed a bit at getting feeling back into her ribcage. "You did fine at getting it tight enough." She felt Yuki re-tighten the last bit of the lace-up material, not nearly as tight as the first time, but tight enough to make breathing just a bit more difficult than usual. Rukia straightened her posture and looked at herself in the mirror the accompanied the back of the dresser. She looked, thin, pale, tiered, she could go on forever, but if she was honest with herself she looked a bit ridiculous. What Japanese heiress of one of the three great noble clans wears a corset!? To meet none other than the prince of the soul society, Rukia then got a nasty thought. _Pshh, probably has some weird fetish for Victorian style women._ Rukia felt a cold shudder run down her spine. What if the prince really did have some sort of freaky 1700 western clothing fetish? What if he liked to . . . She needed to stop herself. Her thoughts getting out of hand, he was probably just a normal guy, with ah, she swallowed hard normal uh- fetishes. Yeah, normal.

"I wonder why you aren't being dressed in traditional garb to meet the prince." Yuki thought allowed. "Oh, ya know what?" Her silver eyes met a distant looking purple in the mirror. "I bet the castle matches this style too!" She sounded way too excited. Rukia's mouth almost hit the floor when Yuki continued.

"Ah! Like an old, humungous, stone laden castle guarded by dragons and a moat! Oh it sounds so exciting."

Rukia looked blankly at Yuki who now seemed to be lost in some sort of middle aged renaissance fantasy world. "Well if you'd like to go in my place, that's fine with me." Rukia said developing an evil grin. She really was feeling better after the walk, and dressing wasn't half bad.

"Ha-ha right, you know on second though, I'm probably . . . uh . . . allergic to dragons?" They both laughed at Yuki's week attempt at protecting herself from being shipped to the prince in a corset and big red bow by Rukia.

"What's all this talk about dragons I hear?" Cho's aged and wise voice rang questioningly from behind the changing wall.

"Ah . . . nothing Grandma Cho we'll be done in a second." Rukia called out as she quickly lifted up the rest of her ensemble and shoved it into Yuki's arms. Yuki accepted the dark blue lump of fabric as she whispered "Nice save." quietly into Rukia's ear.

Rukia lifted her arms up and allowed Yuki to place the rest of the garment on her. It was strange the women outside this dressing room, Cho, probably knew everything about this, who she was betrothed to, when, where, why, and everything in between. Yet, the small raven reaper couldn't bring herself to ask any of these questions. Maybe it was out of respect? Or maybe on some insanely deep subconscious level in the darkest depths of her mind, she trusted Cho. Maybe that sly ever knowing smile might have been a good thing. Rukia let out a long sigh, it didn't really matter either way, positive thoughts didn't make it any easier to just throw your life away and let yourself be sold to the highest bidder. Her eyes had previously been locked with a swirl of misplaced coloring on the dark wooden desk, until she heard that familiar voice of her grandmother but so much closer. Hands hardened by years of use were suddenly gripping her shoulders, and shoving her towards the full length mirror at the end of the wall. Rukia stumbled over her own feet until she finally felt her body connect with the ground. It had been so long since she had actually fallen and hit the ground, because whenever she fell before Ichigo was always there to catch her. Weather she was falling form several miles up in the sky and had just been knocked down by a hollow, or weather she had had just simple slipped on the tiled floor in the kitchen while she was making him rice. Ichigo had never let her fall.

"Rukia you look beautiful . . ." The elders voice faded off as Rukia looked up at her reflection in the mirror. Blue and white was wrapped around her like elegant strokes from a painters brush. The dress was fairly simple for the style, sleeveless, and strait over the stomach. There was a layer of blue ruffles that reached around her dainty shoulders, an equally decorated boarder of white peeking out from underneath the collar of the dress, and a large blue bow blending into the embroidery on the chest. The skirt only had one layer of blue and one layer of white with no embroidery. The first layer, the blue, looked as if it had several because of the stitching and how it weaved In and out of itself with areas that dipped in and out but tapered toward s the end of the dress ever so nicely. The next layer of pristine white framed the bottom with elegance that only could have been perfected by an expert seamstress. But the thing that stuck her as the most shocking was the single tear rolling down her cheek. Quickly she wiped it off with the palm of her hand hoping that no one noticed. Rukia was disappointed in herself, she cried so easily now. Never before had she felt so weak, and never before had she looked so beautiful.

"Ah. Well we know that it fits now." Cho said satisfied to no one in particular. "This means we won't have to spend time on extra sewing."

Rukia's heart was in her throat, if no time was spent on sewing and tucking that would mean her date to meet the prince would be moved up. She really just wanted to sink into the floor and disappear, it seemed as though reality would not let Rukia escape its tight grasp. God and that's all she wanted to do, escape. If there was any way, and chance she could take she would do it in a heart beat. A thought appeared suddenly in her mind, a picture of her signing an old yellowed piece of paper in her own blood as she relinquished her soul to the blurred red figure that stood beside her. Rukia was appalled at the thought, though she wasn't quite sure, if given the chance she may even sell her soul. Rukia sighed. "If only it were that easy . . ." she whispered under her breath so no one else could hear her quiet plea.

Standing up and brushing herself off, she made sure nothing had damaged the magnificent dress as she gave it look. Although she did wish it would have torn into a thousand pieces when she fell. At second glance it was actually quite nice, and the blue was a similar color to the dress she often wore in the human world, a nice friendly shade of blue. The light must have played a trick on her, when she had at first noticed its color it was much too rich and deep blue for her. Too aggressive, but this . . . this wasn't so bad. She grabbed a handful of fabric, it felt like silk, probably was too. _No expenses would be spared for this glorious occasion. _The dark haired shinigami thought sarcastically. She wondered what Ichigo would think if he saw her in this dress. He'd probably think she looked ridiculous, and then say something along the lines of. "They should have given you heels, midget." Rukia grimaced; she didn't even want to know what he might really say. Ah! Here she was aging thinking about Ichigo! What was wrong with her? Maybe she only wanted to see him so badly now because she wasn't allowed to? Rukia concluded that this was the only plausible reason, just the plain old rebellious spirit that resided within her.

Her large violet eyes wandered over to Yuki who was struggling with the many other dresses that had been laid out for Rukia to try on. She couldn't wait for the sleep over tonight with Yuki, and now since the date of her arrival at the soul palace was going to be moved up, this would be the last one she would ever have. Her eyes returned to the image of the foreign women standing in the mirror, she was going to pretend she didn't know who this was, and she never wanted to know. The women who would dress this way every day, due her hair, and wear make up like a doll was someone she never wanted to know. Yet, she somehow had to become.

Rukia stumbled along the cobble stone path; she would have fallen if it hadn't been for the sobriety of her friend. After the fitting was over Rukia had thought it a good idea to raid the mansions for only its best sake. This was _suppose_ to be a celebration after all. The petite reaper took in a large breath of air and sighed, the alcohol was giving her that warm fuzzy feeling inside. "Hah thanks Yuki." She said as she regained her balance for a short period of time.

_Oh my god!_ Yuki thought in terror, _I knew Rukia was kind of a light weight but she only had a few sips so far! Were going to get caught, oh my god, oh my god, Kami help me! _"Ah!" Yuki peeped quietly as she rushed over to Rukia who was now standing on top of the biggest rock she could find in the middle of a Zen garden. She just seemed to slip away in this condition. "Rukia!" Yuki stated through stress clenched teeth. "Were going o get caught if you keep acting like this." There was nothing but pure pleading coming from the servant girl's eyes. Oh man, some serious action regretting was going on right now. Yuki just merely wanted to cheer her friend up a bit. And now she was being punished for trying to be a good person. But the way Rukia had looked when they left the fitting room . . . she was so sad, but now it seemed-

"I don't care Yuki, not any more; I'm care free, not a care in world!" Rukia said stretching her arms up to the sky and standing as tall as she could.

"Rukia you're going to-"

"Umph! Ooow, Yuki why didn't you catch me?" Rukia whined as she got up, bracing herself against the large rock. She brushed the dirt off of the light brown kimono she was wearing. The kimono had a deep chestnut brown emanating in a tree-like fashion from the bottom and up the sides. The small reapers hair was also still up in a loose but decorative bun, a bit of her bangs escaped from the ties hold and fell just above her eyes.

"Er. . . fall . . ." Yuki finished the remaining fragment of her sentence. She watched as her friend battled against gravity and eventually loose. Yuki chuckled as Rukia tumbled to the growned again, she reached out a hand to help up her unstable friend. "God you're a bad drunk." She said as she hoisted Rukia's arm around her shoulder. They started towards Rukia's quarters again, _only a bit further._ Yuki thought longingly, as they continued down the path. Rukia continuously batting at Yuki's sleeve like a cat pawing at a mouse. It was where she had hidden the sake bottle, and Yuki wasn't going to take it out until she deemed it was safe.

"Yuki . . ." Rukia's now small voice reached her ears.

"Yes Rukia?" The silver haired maid asked as they walked up the steps to Rukia's room together, soon finding the sliding door and opening it. Yuki watched as the now slightly depressed looking form of her friend made her way to her bed and flopped down on it face first into the pillow.

"Am I a bad person?" A muffled sounding sentence came from the pillow faced shinigami.

Yuki sighed, "Rukia just because you can't hold your liquor doesn't mea-"

"No, not that." Rukia said sitting up and turning towards Yuki who was now making her way towards Rukia. "About the whole wedding thing . . . am I over reacting?" her already hot face seemed to get a tinge darker as she asked the question.

Yuki didn't really know what to say. She entered the room while shutting the thin door and set herself on the edged of Rukia's bed and thought about the question she had been asked. In one hand Yuki had never seen Rukia react this way to something in her life, but in the other, if presented with the same situation she wouldn't know how to react either. But then again this is the duty of an heiress so? "Umm . . ." Yuki started thinking about what to say that wouldn't upset her somehow very drunk friend. "I thought you said you didn't have a care in the world." Yuki said smiling, knowing that after this they could hopefully get started with the fun. "So, why worry?" Yuki said in hopes of picking up Rukia's mood. She even removed the stolen bottle of sake she was previously hiding in her sleeve.

"Because I just can't help but worry." Rukia said a hint of stress in her tone as she reached out a delicate hand for the bottle.

Yuki let Rukia have the bottle deciding that she probably couldn't get much worse before she would pass out. "I'm letting you have this but only if you promise not to do anything stupid."

Rukia nodded with a weak smile and took a swig of the alcohol. Rukia sucked air through her teeth in a hiss. "Ahhh. Nothing like sake to take the days trouble away. Haha." The drink was clearly taking a tighter hold on the young Kuchuki. She handed the bottle back to Yuki who, preferring to stay sober and babysit Rukia, just set the bottle beside her on the ground.

"So." Yuki started trying to get this thing started. "What's the world of the living like?" Yuki asked with curious, she had never been to the world of the living before, and it made for a good change of subject. Or so she thought until her friends face fell and she sunk back down into the bed while groaning.

"uuh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring it up . . ." Yuki said waving her hands back and forth in front of her, the gesture was clearly to emphasize both that she didn't have to talk about it and how sorry she was.

Rukia turned her head towards Yuki but didn't bother lifting it up from the comfort of her pillow. "No, its fine, I really do need to vent though." A small smirk coming and then leaving her face just as quickly as it had appeared. She rolled onto her back and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm . . . the world of the living lets see . . ." Rukia's look of concentration hardened. "Ah! I know!" She exclaimed almost shooting up from her former blob-like position, scaring the timid Yuki half to death. "They have these wonderful inventions call 'juice pouches', they're nifty little devices made out of thin pliable plastic that you poke a straw through and sip away." A grin spread across her face as she continued. "That was one of the first things I learned about in the world of the living." She looked at Yuki for her reaction, which currently seemed to be a mix of confusion and amazement at this surely new discovery. "Yeah, Ichigo taught me-" _Ichigo. _Rukia's voice seemed to have been thrown off a cliff as the conversation was suddenly put on hold. Maybe it was because she was drunk, or maybe it was because the moon was full that night, she would never know, but the very thought of Ichigo made her want to wallow in a dark pit at the bottom of the ocean and slowly be crushed to death by the pressure. It was probably because she was drunk, right? Her head hung low her bangs covering her face in a shadow so that Yuki couldn't see her eyes. _What's wrong with me!? _She wanted to scream it to the world, her thoughts and frustrations with herself getting the better of her. She wanted to throw a huge tantrum about this whole situation and cry like a child. Cry or scream, that's all. But why!? Her hands bunched into tight fists. She couldn't figure it out, there had to something wrong with her, there had to be some kind of parasitic worm eating her brain making her emotions sporadic and unpredictable. _Maybe it will kill me before I go to the palace? _She thought dripping in sarcasm, but still, it would be nice . . .

"Rukia? Are you ok?"

She tilted her head up knowing that she couldn't hide forever. She relaxed her hands, the nails biting into her skin were becoming quite uncomfortable. "Yeah, I'm good." She confirmed forcing a pained and horribly fake smile.

"Rukia . . ." Yuki began slowly, she reached over for the sake bottle and took a swig, she was going to have to get drunk for this one. "Tell me about Ichigo." She watched Rukia's large violet orbs get even bigger at the mention of his name. Yuki knew she was on to something now, this man had to be the problem. She waited for Rukia to say something but when she didn't, Yuki decided it was time for her friend 'Buzzed Yuki' to step in and help with this situation. "Lemme rephrase that one," The pink haired maid took another swig of the bitter-sweet liquid. "What is he to you?" she asked eyeing up her friend and master.

Rukia just sat there with her mouth opening and closing with nothing coming out. Firstly she had never seen Yuki act so boldly before. Secondly, she knew what Ichigo was to her, but why did the answer not seem to be a satisfying one? "He's . . . h-he's just a friend." Rukia answered quietly, almost shy.

"AND!?" 'Buzzed Yuki' was quickly becoming 'Drunk Yuki'.

"And . . . a-and I'm not ok with being separated from him . . ." Rukia's once small voice was becoming stronger and had a bit more backbone to it. "And I don't want leave him just so I can be shipped off to some prince!"

"But Rukia." Yuki interrupted quickly before she could go any further. "You're not his."

Rukia's fire suddenly seemed to have vanished; Yuki's words had been the cold watery reality check that she had needed. Yuki was right, the only person that her mind, body, and soul could ever belong to now was the prince. Her voice was now nothing more than a whisper, yet still seemed to hold strength all on its own. "But, what if I want to be?"

Ichigo's breath came in ragged pants, his body had a light sheen of sweat covering him. He had been running, searching in fact, for at least three hours at full speed. There was no way out; even the outside of the castle wasn't even the outside! It was some kind of hallucination barrier, it seemed that every time he would try to walk out into the openness of this new world he would end up just facing back towards the castle not remembering how her got there. It was as infuriating as trying to keep your ice from melting in hell.

Currently he was faced with a different problem than a hallucinogenic barrier. Even after all the time he had spent running and trying to distance himself from his would be father he always seemed to catch up just as quickly. This constant chase of cat and mouse reminded him of when he had taken the sereite by storm and rushed in to rescue a certain raven haired shinigami. Well, it wasn't exactly the same, after all he didn't know for sure that Rukia was in danger, and he wasn't anywhere close to even knowing where he was let alone Rukia. But consequences be damned! An arranged marriage was close enough to execution and he had to stop it. Then there was always that nagging thought in the back of his mind. _ What if she wants to go through with it? _It was the thoughts like that one that made him want to get to her even faster. Maybe, if he got there fast enough he could at least try to talk her into staying . . .

The thought of loosing her honestly made him depressed, he leaned his head back against the wall he was propped up against and stared blankly up at the ceiling. He could feel his father's spiritual pressure closing in on him. Ichigo let out a weary sigh, with no way to escape this hell hole he was going to get caught eventually, so it would probably be best not to use up all of his strength on running around in circles. Who new, even after they re-captured him he might be able to find out some way of escaping. If there was a way to get in there was a way to get out, or at least he hoped.

This place was strange, besides hallucinogenic tendencies on the outside; he couldn't even summon his sword. It was another one of the strange qualities of the palace, though he wondered if he was the only one being affected. He scoffed and rolled his eyes, _probably. _Ichigo was no longer bothering to hide his spiritual pressure, he was found and the chase was up. Now, Ichigo wasn't usually one to trust plans, always too many things that could go wrong or get delayed, but right now he hoped to god that this one would work.

Ichigo's eyes snapped to the open doorway that now held the silhouette of his supposed father. "Isshin." Ichigo said with bitterness.

"Ichigo." And that was all that was said before Ichigo felt the familiar tingle of ice in his veins and the awareness of his vision slowly dying on him.

This time when the slender orange haired reaper awoke it was very different. He was laying in a lavish king size bed that had a beautiful black bed spread over it. Ichigo looked at himself to make sure he was clothed. "Oh, thank god" he sighed in relief that he was in fact wearing something, but what it was he wasn't quite sure. Ichigo threw his legs over the edge of the bed and began exploring around the extravagant room, which was also decorated in black. Of course the door was locked. After checking the door he came across an excessively large full length mirror, he stopped in front of it. Observing what he was wearing closer he noticed that he was wearing a slim-fit white undershirt with a black gentlemanly vest overtop, upon closer inspection of the vest he noticed that the silver buttons holding the front together had small Victorian designs in the mold. Above the vest was a large grayed scarf that tucked into the gap at the top of his shirt, where he assumed the first few buttons were undone to compensate for the intrusive piece of clothing. His eyes wandered to his black dress pants, obviously ironed thoroughly. Below the pants were some very expensive looking black leather dress shoes, shined to perfection. To his surprise he was actually enjoying this look until he realized . . . someone had to re-dress him. He cringed at the thought of someone dressing him in his sleep, or even worse what if his father had been the one to dress him? A shiver ran down his spine. But that wasn't even the worst part. Ichigo sniffed the air . . .was he wearing cologne!? . . . and was his hair washed? He lifted up an arm and smelt, deodorant. Oh. My. God. Someone had washed him! In his sleep! Ichigo almost crumpled to the ground in the fetal position. And, was this minty freshness? Oh no someone had the audacity to touch his teeth! By the end of his panic attack Ichigo wanted to go and shower again. Who knew what they did to him, they could have . . .

"Ah it seems you're awake." An unfamiliar voice stated the obvious from behind him.

Ichigo turned from the mirror to find happy blue eyes staring back at him. He actually had to take a few steps back because the proximity of their faces made Ichigo quite uncomfortable. "uuh . . ."

"Ah yes, forgive me young prince." The blond man said apologetically giving Ichigo a deep and dramatic bow. The stranger's right arm coming under his abdomen and the left stilled gracefully out to the side. "I am Tamaki." The man said joyfully, and slid back into his upright position. He was just as tall as Ichigo, bust not muscular as far as he could tell. He was almost in the same outfit Ichigo was in only Tamaki's pants and shoes were white as opposed to black. His vest was also different, it was electric blue and had gold buttons but as far as Ichigo could tell it was the same cast. The last difference was the white over coat he wore over the whole thing. Tamaki seemed to be more slender and lean, as apposed to the wiry and muscled appearance Ichigo gave off. Even under all of the ridiculous clothes. Which Ichigo had to admit, he looked pretty good in.

Tamaki didn't seem to be malicious. But Ichigo could swear he had saw him somewhere before. "I'm sorry but have we met before?" Ichigo asked slightly confused.

"Hmmm. . ." Tamaki thought about Ichigo's question for a moment. "I believe we have, I was Karin's soccer coach, If I'm not mistaken I've met you at a few of her games before."

"What do mean?" Ichigo asked his confusion now doubled.

"I am Karin Kurosaki's Guardian." Tamaki said smiling.

_Oh, great more of this guardian shit._ Ichigo thought dryly. "Ok, but if your Karin's guardian why are you here?"

"Oh, well I do more than just protect Karin, and to answer the question your highness, I am here to check up on you." Tamaki's bright blue eyes began scanning the room, it didn't appear that Ichigo had done anything drastic, but then again he probably couldn't without his sword.

Ichigo eyed him cautiously. "Did you dress me?" His tone dead serious.

"Eheh . . . no, I think Midori is the one who dressed you." The blond said in a tone that would almost lead Ichigo to think he was hiding something.

Before Ichigo could question any further about his new look and how it got there, a new presence entered the room.

Ichigo turned to his father who was walking towards the two of them, Ichigo began walking towards him as well intent on meeting him half way. "How do I get out of here old man?" His voice calm yet demanding at the same time.

"Through the door." Isshin replied sarcastically.

"You know what I mean." Ichigo had to bite back the anger that was rising from within him.

"Ichigo . . . I will tell you how to leave the palace, hell I will even escort you out myself if you do this one thing." Isshin stated in a matter of fact tone.

"What do I have to do?"

"You have to at least meet her. You don't have to talk; you don't even have to look at her again after your encounter. But if you meet her and you still want to leave after that, I will tell you how to get out." The bargain was said.

Ichigo didn't need to think about it very long, if this was the only way then so be it, but he had to get out of this place and as quickly as possible. "Deal." The deal was struck.

Isshin gave his boy a big toothy grin and grabbed him around the shoulder just like he would have if they were back at home. "Alright then!" Isshin shouted happily. "Lets go get some food!"

"Wait." Ichigo said before going any further. "How long until I meet her?"

"Depends on how quickly she can pick a dress my boy. And by the way, I guarantee you won't be leaving."

AN- Yay! And yes that is tamaki from the host club :) I just couldn't resist using him! He just fit the part so well, and I suck at thinking of names. teeheeThat was it hope you liked it, I have no idea when the next chapter will be out. Sorry, but if you can, Review and let me know what's going on in yo- brains. :) OH AND HEADS UP! The rating on this story may change to M. if ya catch mah drift.


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